Waiting
by fringeperson
Summary: TWOSHOT. Songfic, CH1 Disney's Pocahontas, Just Around the Riverbend. Rin is waiting for Sesshoumaru to retun for her. CH2 Disney's Hercules, I Won't Say I'm In Love . Sesshoumaru's contemplation of his feelings for Rin. DON'T OWN CHARACTERS, OR SONGS.
1. Chapter 1

_What I love most about rivers is:  
You can't step in the same river twice  
The water's always changing, always flowing  
But people, I guess, can't live like that  
We all must pay a price  
To be safe, we lose our chance of ever knowing  
What's around the riverbend  
Waiting just around the riverbend_

To Rin, being left in the care of Grandmother Kaede by her precious Lord was a truly sad moment. She was eleven years old, and Lord Sesshoumaru had declared that her scent had changed. Abruptly he had turned and brought the small company to the village. A brief exchange passed between himself and the priestess, and Rin was left behind when her Lord left with Jaken and Ah-Un.

Rin had run after him, asking when he would return. Jaken had sharply reprimanded her that Lord Sesshoumaru had no reason to return at all, that she was a foolish little human and the others like her in the village would suitably care for her now.

"When you are older Rin," Sesshoumaru had answered, once the toad had finished. "When you have learned that which you will need to learn." Then he turned once again from her, and continued into the tempting shadows of the forest beyond the village.

"I grow older every day my Lord," she whispered to where he had stood moments before. "I shall learn quickly then." Rin dragged her feet, however, as she returned to the hut of the old priestess.

_I look once more  
Just around the riverbend  
Beyond the shore  
Where the gulls fly free  
Don't know what for  
What I dream the day might send  
Just around the riverbend  
For me  
Coming for me_

She felt so confined within the village. It was not like the times when she rode Ah-Un. Sometimes she even got to fly on his back. Rin dreamed of the day Lord Sesshoumaru would return for her.

_I feel it there beyond those trees  
Or right behind these waterfalls  
Can I ignore that sound of distant drumming  
For a handsome sturdy husband  
Who builds handsome sturdy walls  
And never dreams that something might be coming?  
Just around the riverbend  
Just around the riverbend_

Rin was thirteen now, and the girls she had spent the last two-and-a-half years with were beginning to take notice of the boys in the village. The boys were starting to notice back as well. She saw one older boy building a house, his father helping, but she knew that there was nothing wrong with the one that the family currently lived in.

A week after the hut was built, Rin saw her first wedding. After the ceremony, one of the girls nudged her and whispered that in just two years, the village would be coming to _their_ weddings.

The very idea of marrying a village boy scared Rin terribly, and she ran desperately out to the forest edge as the celebrations began. She heard the drums and the singing and even so far away could feel the heat of the bonfire that had been built.

"I'm older now Lord Sesshoumaru," whispered the girl-woman into the night. "I've learned the things I need to know. Come back for me soon."

The only answer from the darkened forest was the whisper of the summer breeze and the chirp of insects.

_I look once more  
Just around the riverbend  
Beyond the shore  
Somewhere past the sea  
Don't know what for ...  
Why do all my dreams extend  
Just around the riverbend?  
Just around the riverbend ..._

It was winter when Rin turned fifteen at last. Through the previous summer and autumn months, a boy had been watching her, and she was not comfortable with it. Her dreams were not filled with the life that the village offered her. She had no want to be a labouring mother in a dirt hut, caring for children by day and being struck into by a work-wearied farmer husband by night.

That is not to say that she did not was love or a home or children, but she recalled her childhood fondly. According to Kaede, she recalled it too fondly. This, Rin privately conceded, might have some truth to it. That her Lord still figured in her dreams every night was something she felt to nee to conceal. That the nature of the dreams had changed over her time in the village, however, she kept to herself.

Rin could no longer think of her Lord as merely her protector, guardian and saviour. She loved him. She loved him dearly and deeply, living her life as one given to her by him, for it was. Any life he offered to her, she would gladly accept, for she would be near to him again.

But the village boy continued to watch her.

_Should I choose the smoothest course  
Steady as the beating drum?  
Should I marry Kocoum?  
Is all my dreaming at an end?  
Or do you still wait for me, Dream Giver  
Just around the riverbend? _

When the summer came, the boy approached her as she stood where the river met the forest, carrying some of her favourite flowers in his hand. He should not have picked them. Rin barely concealed her distaste for his act. They were her favourite because she had picked them as a child, and Lord Sesshoumaru had allowed her to bestow them upon his brow in a wreath, on more than one occasion.

No, the boy should not have picked those flowers.

He said that he had asked Kaede if he might be allowed to marry Rin, and he held out the flowers to her.

Rin ignored the bouquet, inquiring as to Kaede's response. Mentally, she smiled at how like Lord Sesshoumaru she sounded then, demanding an answer so imperiously.

He faltered. "She said it wasn't up to her to give say yes on your behalf," the boy answered, the question of why this was so clearly laced into his face and voice.

"That is correct, it isn't," declared a voice from just within the shadow of the trees.

Rin's face lit as it hadn't in the past four years, stunning the boy who had picked flowers for her. He had never seen her smile like that, had never seen her whole face light up from within, had never seen her large brown eyes sparkle with delight and love the way they did now.

"My Lord Sesshoumaru!" she cried, clearly blissful to see him as he emerged from the trees, Jaken and Ah-Un just behind him. "Master Jaken and Ah-Un as well!" Rin exclaimed, moving a few steps forward herself at last.

"Rin! Impudent girl, what are you doing alone in the company of this human boy?" Jaken demanded.

"It was not my choice, Master Jaken," Rin replied, looking down further than she remembered needing to in the past to address the green retainer. "He is the one who sought me out and wishes to marry me, I have no inclination to his company."

Sesshoumaru looked over at the boy at this exchange. The boy wisely moved cautiously backwards.

"You do not wish to marry this boy?" Sesshoumaru asked, his golden, distasteful gaze on the boy in question.

"No my Lord," Rin answered simply. She remembered well her Lord's dislike for foolish prattling. The frequency with which he would beat and threaten Jaken for such still in her treasured memories of her days in his company and care.

"You do not wish to marry any of the other boys in the village?" His golden eyes were upon her now, and there was no distaste, but just a questioning.

"No my Lord," she said again, frowning. To marry any of them would be terrible, she was sure. They would never leave the village themselves except maybe to fight, and certainly if she married she would never be allowed to leave.

"Do you perhaps wish to follow me then?" Rin prayed she wasn't imagining the hope laced in his golden eyes as he asked her that. He showed no other sign of anticipating a particular answer from her.

"For as long as you will allow it my Lord!" Her answer drew one of her Lord's rare smiles, and Rin's heart thumped in her chest at the sight. It had been so long since she had seen him, and she loved him so much.

"Come then."

Rin resisted the urge to embrace him for those two simple words. He would likely not appreciate it. Nevertheless, her smile broadened further and when Ah-Un knelt before her she climbed on without a moment's hesitation. There was nothing important she was leaving in the village that she did not know how to replace, and the only one that was precious to her had finally come for her.

She was surprised when, rather than taking the lead on foot, Lord Sesshoumaru straddled Ah-Un behind her, reaching around her to take the reins himself. Jaken just managed to gain the beast's tail before Lord Sesshoumaru ordered Ah-Un into the air.

"How I've missed this," Rin sighed in delight as she relished in the feel of Ah-Un below her and the presence of Lord Sesshoumaru behind her.

From the air, the party followed the river below until the sun began to set, and Ah-Un descended to a grassy clearing.


	2. Chapter 2

_If there's a prize for rotten judgement  
I guess I've already won that  
No man is worth the aggravation  
That's ancient history, been there, done that!_

Sesshoumaru looked down at the girl-woman astride of Ah-Un in front of him. The past four years without her company had been unsurprisingly quiet, but unlike the time before he took her in, Sesshoumaru found himself unable to appreciate the silence. His thoughts lingered on her often, but he had always forced her from his mind. It did not sit well with him that he was thinking so much about a human, even if the human was his Rin.

_Who'd'ya think you're kiddin'  
He's the Earth and heaven to you  
Try to keep it hidden  
Honey, we can see right through you  
Girl, ya can't conceal it  
We know how ya feel and  
Who you're thinking of_

He had been, not mad, that was too mild an expression, but he hadn't been furious either, if he had been furious there would have been bloodshed. No, the sight of the human holding out flowers to his Rin had made him livid. He had seethed at the sight of the flowers she had once picked for him now being offered to her by a human male. The frosty imperialisms of her response to him had cooled his anger though, and it had warmed his heart when she had explained to Jaken the situation.

She did not want the human's attention. He would not admit to himself that he was relieved.

_No chance, no way  
I won't say it, no, no_

You swoon, you sigh  
why deny it, uh-oh

It's too cliche  
I won't say I'm in love

_I thought my heart had learned its lesson  
It feels so good when you start out  
My head is screaming get a grip, girl  
Unless you're dying to cry your heart out  
Oh_

He had wanted her to return to him a mere moon cycle after he had left her with the wrinkled old priestess, but for her own good, he knew she had to spend time with her own kind. Jaken's voice grated, and without the child to ride it, Ah-Un had become grumpy. Perhaps he should have left them both with Rin, to watch over her, still, he had not turned back then.

He had only returned at all because, apart from the promise that he had made to Rin that he would, and he always kept his word, Sesshoumaru had witnessed a human wedding the autumn just passed, and when he saw the age of the bride, he had realised that Rin would be that age also.

He was her guardian. Until she was fifty she would not be permitted to make independent decisions. This included marriage. Nevertheless, he was glad that such permission from himself had not been required.

Now she was back with him again. He could smell her joy when she had seen him again, and as they rode Ah-Un through the sky, it was not difficult to sense her comfort, even as she rested against his armoured chest, which was sharp, solid and hard. The warm sensation she caused in his chest disquieted him. He had not intended to ever repeat his father's actions.

_You keep on denying  
Who you are and how you're feeling  
Baby, we're not buying  
Hon, we saw ya hit the ceiling  
Face it like a grown-up  
When ya gonna own up  
That ya got, got, got it bad_

The sun was setting, and Sesshoumaru guided Ah-Un down, knowing the beast preferred to not fly at night. Upon landing, he heard Jaken fall to the ground with a relieved sigh, the imp did not enjoy flying. Rin, on the other hand, jumped down lightly and moved to Ah-Un's heads, hugging each one around the neck and stroking both manes fondly.

Ah-Un relished in the attention, butting its heads against her sides and purring at her, causing her to laugh.

Dismounting himself, Sesshoumaru hid his sigh. He had been far too long without the sound of her laughter. Quickly ordering Jaken to fetch wood, Sesshoumaru sat down just away from the centre of the clearing they had landed in. When Rin knelt before him, politely asking that he excuse her to find her supper, he nodded, knowing her need for sustenance. He had not forgotten in all the years without her, though he felt some discomfort that she did not linger by him longer.

_No chance, now way  
I won't say it, no, no_

Give up, give in  
Check the grin you're in love

This scene won't play,  
I won't say I'm in love

You're doin flips read our lips  
You're in love

_You're way off base  
I won't say it  
Get off my case  
I won't say it_

_  
Girl, don't be proud  
It's O.K. you're in love_

Jaken returned with wood and built the fire, and Rin likewise returned with many berries and mushrooms collected in a fold of her yukata, though it seemed she had already made a start on the berries, if that red stain on her lips was any indication. She ate her meal quickly and was soon curled up by his side, just as she had when she was younger, asleep.

Sesshoumaru did not bother to hide as he turned his nose to Rin and breathed deeply as much of her scent as he could. He had missed her scent. It was so sweet, so pure, and there was a hint of flowers about her even when she hadn't picked any. He watched, rapt, as she sighed and pulled his fur closer burying her face in it, and when she moaned his name in her sleep, a new scent reached his nose. Passion and arousal. He witnessed her alternately separating and clenching her legs together as she whimpered his name again.

Another smile crossed his face. Jaken and Ah-Un were asleep also, making him the only one watching. He alone was fortunate enough to enjoy the sight of Rin as she clearly dreamt of him in the most intimate way. Sesshoumaru, as he watched her, began to realise that it had been a long time since he had even thought of Rin as a human, as unworthy of him. She was his Rin, and she wanted to be with him.

_Oh  
At least out loud,  
I won't say I'm in love_

Gently, Sesshoumaru drew the sleeping Rin closer to him, unintentionally waking her as he settled her into his lap.

"My Lord?" she asked, as though unsure if she was awake or dreaming still.

"Rin, would you allow me to pup you?" Sesshoumaru asked.

"Even though the child would be a half demon?" Rin answered, surprised, though her hand slid carefully up his chest to the join of his shoulder and neck.

"Even so. I will not die and leave you to the cruelties of humans, as my father did InuYasha and his mother."

Rin smiled and rested her head against his chest where his heart beat. "If it would please you, My Lord, then nothing would make me happier. My everything belongs to you, Lord Sesshoumaru."

Tenderly, he caressed her hair, cheek, and neck before kissing her lips softly.

Laying together with only his large white fur to cover their naked bodies, twined together as they were, Sesshoumaru kissed Rin once more before whispering of his love to her, his now eternal mate. She smiled back at him and, just before she closed her large brown eyes, whispered back: "I love you too, Sesshoumaru."


End file.
